Today is your opportunity to bless someone you do not know. Today is your opportunity to it share the love of Christ with the world.
Who, exactly, is the world? The world consists of those many people you will see but never really know. The neighbor who lives up the street but you’ve never really met except to wave hello. The woman sitting in the next chair at the doctor’s office. The kid who comes over to help you when you are trying to do the self-checkout at the grocery store and it is not going well. The Amazon driver. That is the world. People with whom you have casual, fleeting contact.
All these people are opportunities for you to share the love of Christ. What are the alternatives? You could see them as men and women whom you notice only when they can do something for you. We call those transactional relationships. You could see them as annoyances, people in your way. Better to see them as opportunities to show the love of Christ.
We, too, are the world. We, too, know what it is like when people are interested only when we can do something for them. We, too, know what it is like to be considered an annoyance. We, too, are the world. God came to the world, he came to us, when we felt we were only in the way and only of use when we could do something for somebody. God came to us in Jesus and claimed us as his own and made us members of his family.
In our sermon this Sunday we will look at how to have a healthy relationship with the world.